Minister lunched with lobbyist for £400m rail deal ...but MPS were refused talks
A MINISTER held a ‘private lunch’ with a lobbyist to discuss a controversial rail depot while MPS’ demands for meetings were rebuffed by the Government.
Revelations about the lunch and the snub to MPS have caused a fresh lobbying row.
David Cameron has been warned that he faces a ‘lunches for lobbyists’ scandal after it emerged that Transport Minister Theresa Villiers dined privately with a public affairs consultant who was acting for developers.
She met him to discuss plans to build a £400million freight terminal on green belt land near St Albans, Hertfordshire. The scheme has faced stiff local opposition.
But MPS said they had been given the ‘run around’ when they asked to meet to discuss the plans.
A meeting with Transport Secretary Justine Greening was cancelled minutes before it was due to take place because officials said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to hold talks with MPS before a final decision was made.
MPS are furious that the lobbyist, Simon Hoare, was given the chance privately to discuss the rail freight depot plans while their pleas for a hearing were rebuffed.
He is also a Tory councillor for West Oxfordshire, the local council in the Prime Minister’s constituency. Mr Hoare was a Tory candidate at the 2010 general election in Cardiff South and is pictured with Mr Cameron on his election leaflets.
Miss Villiers met Mr Hoare, then a lobbyist with his own agency, Community Connect, on behalf of developers Helioslough in August last year. Helioslough wants to build the giant depot on a 300-acre site at the former Radlett Airfield. The plan includes five warehouses, the largest of which will be one million square feet.
Miss Villiers was later given a document outlining the ‘economic benefits’ of the development, and in November Justine Greening told MPS in a joint statement with the Department for Communities and Local Government that ministers wanted to ‘speed up delivery’ of strategic rail freight infrastructure
‘Complete transparency’
projects. The lunch had been kept under wraps until last week when it emerged in a parliamentary answer to Tory MP James Clappison in which Miss Villiers said she had met Mr Hoare ‘in a private capacity’ and that ‘the matters we discussed included the Radlett proposal’. The con- troversy comes just days after Mr Cameron reluctantly unveiled details of the dinners he had held with donors at Number 10 and his country residence Chequers.
Mr Clappison told the Mail: ‘I remain convinced that there is an overwhelming case against a rail freight terminal in this location.
‘We need complete transparency over any documentation and meetings in the run up to any decision.’
Tory MP Anne Main, who fears the development and heavy traffic would blight villages in her St Albans constituency, said: ‘Lunches with lobbyists are no better than dinners with donors.
‘We would never have known that this private lunch had taken place had we not asked the questions. MPS and their constituents deserve to know that there has not been any unfair access in decisions that are so important.’
Plans for the depot have been turned down twice by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles because it would be in the green belt. But developers are trying to get the decision overturned.
Mr Hoare could not be reached for comment last night.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘Theresa Villiers has behaved appropriately and transparently, having already informed Parliament last month of the details of this meeting.
‘She is not the decision-maker on this planning application which is the responsibility of a different department.’